21 (More) Reasons Colombia is the Happiest Country in the World

You may or may not have seen Huffington Post’s excellent article detailing 21 reasons Colombia is the happiest country in the world. Well, as a group of international travellers that have lived here for many, many years, we thought we’d bring you some extras.

Aguardiente

Aguardiente

Let’s face it, there are a lot of people here that are happy, but they’re made even happier after a bottle of ‘guaro’. Knocked back with a group of friends in a cheap bar, there’s nothing that says friendship like a good old bottle of Colombia’s favourite liquor.

Vallenato

Bringing together generations of Colombians, vallenato stands as a musical representation of national pride… Even if it’s not actually that good. The thing is with vallenato, it’s not what’s sung nor even how it’s sung, but that it’s distinctly Colombian. That’s what gets the locals embracing after a night on the booze.

Tiendas

Tiendas are quite possibly the best thing in the world. Hankering for a beer (or coffee, or sandwich, or buñuelo)? Wherever you are, you can guarantee that within 5 minutes you’ll find a tienda full of friendly locals.

Donde hay Poker, hay amigos…

Do we need a caption here? BEER!

Drinking beers and chatting with friends, who could ask for more?

Telenovelas

Fine, telenovelas are objectively bad. Awful, even. But you watch them and you feel a lot better about yourself, your normal life and your normal friends.

Sloths

How you doin’?

Sloths are awesome. End of.

Food

Whatever you may think about Colombian food, it’s certainly fresh. More than anything, however, the reason it makes Colombians so happy is because so many locals really love it with an outrageous passion that, many times, can seem to overpower common sense. A Colombian rice and chicken dish might seem relatively basic for many, but for many of my local friends it’s a gift from the heavens.

Pictures of food

Ajiaco

And it’s not just actual food, either. I know from experience that posting a picture of Colombian food on Facebook will get me more likes than any other thing.

Language

Colombian Spanish is so excessively polite that you can’t help but be put in a good mood. I especially love it when they call me ‘Don Paul’. Yeeeeeeeeh.

Old fat men with their t-shirts rolled up

Who wouldn’t be happy if all they had to do was live in a beautiful Colombian pueblo and drink beer with their t-shirt rolled up just above their belly? Where do I see myself in 10 years? With any luck right there with them.

Everyone loves them

Everyone loves Colombians. That’s just science.

Music

Colombians love music. They sing on buses, they sing in bars, they dance in the street and they dance by themselves.

Fincas

The view from the hills; heading to a finca outside Bogotá

Ok it’s hardly like everyone has a finca, but it would be remiss of me to overlook the sheer joy that must come from owning a flat and a country house.

Minutos a celular

Need to make a phone call but got no credit? FEAR NOT. Somewhere near you will be someone selling ‘minutes’ on their phone. You go up, you ask them for a certain network, and you make the call. Easy.

Whatever you want is nearby

Kind of following on from the minutos. Colombia is a country where some things are furstratingly difficult to find (curry ingredients, for example), but others are right on your doorstep. My friend asked me if I knew anywhere to buy shoelaces – sure enough a guy stands on the end of my street selling shoelaces. I was hungry at night after drinking – sure enough a lady walks down the street selling sandwiches at 3am.

Sugar high

A quite plausible explanation is that everyone is on a sugar rush, since everything down to the bread has a touch of the ‘dulce’ about it.

Chocoramo

Delicious stuff.

Pride

There’s no arrogance or obnoxiousness about it, but Colombians are generally extremely proud of their country, to the extent that you wonder if every day some people don’t get out of bed with a beaming smile on their face, thrilled only to be Colombian and to be facing a day in their beloved country. Won’t find a Brit doing that, let me tell you.

For years it was negative, now press is uniformly positive

Ok fine, articles about Colombia still have the seemingly obligatory opening few lines about how the country used to be dangerous and blah blah blah, but magazines and papers as distinguished as TIME, the Guardian and NatGeo are all bust scribbling away about the virtues of Colombia. It’s nice to see.

Oceans

Beach in El Choco

With the Pacific and Atlantic oceans both lapping away at Colombia’s shores, a beach holiday is never far away.

We, as foreigners, are happy

Expats and travelers come to Colombia at times not knowing what to expect, but having spent time among the locals, having enjoyed the country’s spectacular scenery and having had a slice of life in Colombia, most of them fall in love. It’s a country many foreigners are passionate about, and they aren’t afraid to tell the whole world about it. Just look at us.

Paul is an Englishman with a longstanding love of travel, tea and quality beer. His first trip was to Bosnia & Herzegovina and it was there, wading in some waterfalls near Mostar with just a litre of cheap beer and some bread in his belly, that he was bitten by the travel bug. After many more trips and a spell working in London, Paul relocated to Buenos Aires for some months before moving to Colombia. He's been here, knocking back 'guaro', for about 2 years now. More posts from Paul Fowler

Interesting. I cant really disagree with anything in your article except for Aguardiente; just the smell of it makes me feel a bit sick. I know I am in the minority with that one. Oh, and I’ve never seen a sloth.

I don’t believe that Colombians are the happiest in the world though. To me it seems like a slightly defensive sort of pride. Seven of the top ten ‘happiest’ nations were in Central and South America; countries that undeniably have problems. Colombia has traditionally had a very negative image around the world (which, as you say, is changing). Just before I married a Colombian and went to Colombia, friends would mention cocaine, kidnapping; all the boring old stereotypes. And Colombians are aware of this (wrong) image that people around the world have of them so when asked: are you happy? They say “YES, why wouldn’t I be? What are you trying to say? Colombia is the BEST country in the world” etc. My wife and family members of her age all report their frustrations with daily life in Colombia.

Anyway, I think I have over-thought this a little bit. Trying to avoid doing any work! Love Colombia and love your website.

I am sorry, but the HP article is totally crap, I am a colombian, and I can tell you why. Let’s go trough these “reasons”: 1.Yes, we have perhaps the highest amount of insect species and, in general, a big biodiversity. However, very few people know it and even fewer appreciate it, thanks to the terrible public education system based on repeating dates, phrases and names. 2.The Caribbean Sea; have you ever visited Cartagena, for instance? Black community is majority there, and they live in very precarious conditions. Average Colombia is ranked very bad as GINI coefficient concerns, imagine how this region is. 3. Beautiful women; slim bodies are an exception. We do not have the belly sizes of US, but we are not far from it. 4.Emeralds; Talking about emeralds in Colombia is linked to mafia, narcotrafficking and paramilitarism. Make google search for Victor Carranza and you will find some doceumented information in this regard. 7.The rivers; our hidric sources are in risk, thanks to the neoliberal policies of the last goverments that have expanded minerals explotation in natural reserve areas. 9.Local company Fabricate used to be a leader in colombian textile industry.It is in bankrupcy thanks to the financial practices of the free-markey fundamentalists. 10. Rest? Ask an average colombian how low is his/her slalary, and how exploited a person is. As for these rest days and the festivales, we call it “pan y circo”. 15. El Dorado.Slavery made possible for Spain to gather huge amounts of Gold.Nowadays, gold explotation contaminates rivers with Mercury, which is used for extracting the gold. After all, where do most of the gold end up? Yes, in the hands of crimminals from the high society. We need gold for electronics, but in relatively tiny amounts. 17.Stars? Old fashioned celebrities.You will never see them suporting a humanitary cause.They do not have the time for it. 19.Oldest democracy? Perhaps a very famous quote from the 90s, by Vargas Llosa, would fit perfectly into the current colombian context: “Mexico is the perfect dictatorship”. 21.Global player? Lets be honest.Free trade agreements will eliminate the small farmers and will turn Colombia into a AgroIndustrial GMO producer. In the past everything was organic, now you have to go the source to get some decent fruits. We are giving up natural resources, ecosystems, and children lives in exchage for devaluated dollars, exactly at the point when the global economy is decadence. Wake up Colombia!

Interesting to hear your points, we’re always open to different perspectives. Not sure if I agree on all of what you said, but definitely some good points. Perhaps the article would have been titled better “Reasons to come to Colombia” or something… I think our reasons might just be a little more accurate!